You’re so right!
I’m continually amused at all my Liberal friend’s nodding approval of my BEV and my Conservative friend’s disdain and comments like “They’ll never force ME to buy an EV!”
It’s really funny! I often wish I could record their comments so I could play it back for them at some future date.
And were more reliable! Remember “Planned obsolescence”?!
Remember the hoopla over incandescent bulbs versus LED? Price came down for LEDs, they use less energy, last longer and now you can hardly find an incandescent. Hmm, see a parallel?
I think our resistance to change plays a big part in how we react to major paradigm shifts like having to curtail our use of fossil fuels. And when you throw in the special interests and how they leverage that innate tendency to resist any change, it really clouds the issue and makes it a lot harder to discuss things in a logical and substantive way.
I hadn’t given the matter of the current BEV slowdown in sales much thought until now, but I think the current sales network is so used to selling the benefits of ICE cars that they just inserted the BEV as an equal transportation solution. It’s not, it’s a very different animal and you just can’t replace an ICE vehicle with a BEV and pretend it’s the same.
If I owned a car dealership right now, I’d be real worried about a future with BEVs contributing just a small fraction of the service business revenue I spent years building and now depend on to keep my business profitable.
The BEV has a lot of advantages, like fuel costs & convenience, maintenance time & costs and zippy performance. But if you want to go on a cross-country trip waiting a minimum of half an hour to recharge is a real pain.
It’ll be interesting to watch it play out. In the meantime I’m glad I’m in a position to drive a BEV.
I’m continually amused at some of my Liberal friends that still wear masks…in cars…driving by themselves…because they were told to at some point.
There’s lotsa reasons people wear a mask. Maybe they’re trying to prevent making YOU sick.
If I decide to jump in their car in the middle of traffic…I will thank them. 
Kidding, right?
You believe choosing one type of bulb over another, and the thirty seconds it takes to install it…compares with gov’t mandates to shut down a 100+ year old billion-dollar industry, and create a new billion-dollar industry? The same as light bulbs? Really?
Similarly, I am beginning to cook with more plant-based beef instead of cow beef because it has some benefits to me.
But I don’t want the gov’t to shut down the cattle industry.
That’s what the EV cheerleaders don’t seem to understand. [or simply don’t want to] EV’s have definite advantages, and if still working, I’d probably get one.
But I want to have a CHOICE….! Why not have both ICE and EV’s, with the suppliers making their products so attractive people will line up to buy them?
Why does the gov’t force us to buy their preferred models? This is not a light bulb but a very expensive auto that will be used for years.
What do you think would happen if we never implemented steps to curb CO2 emissions?
Should we just continue on as if burning fossils fuels had zero effect on our planet?
Did I say that? NO! I agree with you! I was comparing the "You can’t make me buy . . . . " statement. They said the same thing about LED bulbs 10 years ago, but in time most people converted because the cost/benefit made sense - except for maybe the diehards who bought up a lifetime supply of incandescent!!
But like LED’s, the price of EV’s is falling and I think with technology they will continue to fall. EV’s are mostly electrical/electronic compared to an ICE vehicle. Have you compared the price of almost any electronic product, TV, computer, etc. to 10 or 20 years ago? I paid $2,000 for a 40 inch HD TV 20 years ago. For a couple hundred dollars you can buy a larger screen, 4K with better picture and more features. Battery technology should continue to improve too which will extend the range. So I think in the not too distant future, EVs will become more competitive with ICE vehicles and then it is up to the market.
But yes, in the meantime, you should have a choice. The timetables they set up for eliminating ICE vehicles doesn’t sound realistic. But it is a target, like MPG, and can change. But I don’t fault the government for offering incentives encouraging choices that improve the greater good.
And how does that affect you? Other than your amusement?
That’s what I want, and suspect many buyers agree.
All agree EV’s have some great advantages, no doubt. But I want to chose to buy one, not forced into one.
I am hoping we get to a point rather soon where the battery form factor and construction is standardized by the manufacturers. This will help drive the costs down of the major component of BEVs. Additionally I would like to see the battery packs take on a modular form where you could swap out one defective battery from the pack and one bad cell from a battery.
I’m curious – what are the maintenance costs (over time) for an EV?
Of course tires need to be rotated/replaced.
And after some amount of time the battery would need replacement, which I would imagine is pricey.
But aren’t there some things in an electric engine that need maintenance and repair?
And – so much is computerized. One computer chip fails and into the shop the car goes…
EVs are mechanically much much simpler. No transmission, no alternator, no radiator, no spark plugs, no fuel injectors, no catalytic converter, no timing chain, etc. They require some level of maintenance but they have far less things to fail and maintain.
I’ve owned my BEV since Feb 2022. Most adjustments and minor fixes that would normally require a visit to the dealer’s service department are done via the Internet and I’m notified via text message when they are done. I haven’t been back to the dealer since purchasing the car.
My first service appointment will be in Feb 2024 and will entail replacing the windshield wipers, adding wiper fluid and checking the brakes. The second scheduled service appointment is in Feb 2026. The brakes are hardly ever used in normal driving and I expect them to easily last well over 100,000 miles.
Today the average BEV total battery replacement cost is somewhere between $5K and $15K. I expect that that cost will come down over time because the old BEV batteries will continue to be in demand for things like Tesla’s Power Walls and when the are fully spent, after some 30 year’s of useful life, the materials will be valuable as recycling input. My Volvo BEV’s batteries are warranted for 100,000 miles and we drive it around 10K miles a year or less.
The computerized components of a BEV are pretty much the same as an ICE car but without the risks of an internal combustion engine and all the maintenance problems that come with containing 10,000 to 20,000 explosions a minute as you drive around town.
Your ICE vehicle pumps gasoline or diesel fuel from the fuel tank to the engine and squirts a bit into each of 4 to 8 cylinders, where it is violently mixed with compressed air and lit on fire. The resulting explosion the pushes the 7-moving-part piston and crankshaft assembly to begin the rotating motion that must then transferred to a 400+ part transmission filled with oil to cool and lubricate it witch in turn must transfer the rotating motion to a 10+ part oil-filled differential which finally turns the wheels of your ICE car.
Your BEV makes use of the electrons stored in it’s batteries much more efficiently by coaxing the shaft of an electric motor to rotate and turn the wheels of your vehicle quietly, efficiently and with a lot more power applied to the road to move you to your desired location.
I still remember an NPR news story about economics. It claimed John Maynards Keynes was the first real economist. That is laughable. By the way, Keynes is the hero- economists of most leftists.
I have owned a BEV since 2015. First a Leaf and then a Tesla. Other than tires I have only changed the cabin air filter on an annual basis. I will confirm that a BEV seems to wear through tires a little quicker (around 25k miles). I have also had a couple of recall items. I haven’t even had to replace any brakes due to the regenerative braking that save a lot of wear and tear.
I will always own a BEV for daily driving. It’s a no-brainer…
True. So why does the gov’t need to force us into buying one?